How to Sync OneNote to Your OneDrive Account

Take your notes everywhere you go

By
Christina Wood
Christina Wood
Christina Wood
Writer
Christina Wood has been covering technology for 15+ years. She has contributed to Family Circle, PC World, PC Magazine, CIO, Yahoo and many other publications.
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Updated on April 24, 2022

What to Know

  • Open OneNote notebook > Share > select OneDrive or Add a Place.
  • Next, select Move Notebook and share with others.

This article explains how to sync OneNote 2019 with OneDrive, creating a backup copy of your notebooks online. Instructions apply to OneDrive on Windows 10.

How to Sync OneNote With OneDrive

Follow these instructions to sync your OneNote to OneDrive and share your notebook with others.

Because of the way OneNote works, you should always use the OneNote app to do this. Moving the files with a file manager will cause syncing problems that will be terribly difficult to unsnarl.

  1. Open the OneNote notebook you created on your computer using OneNote.

    Open the notebook in OneNote

  2. Select Share.

    Share selected from the OneNote menu

  3. Select OneDrive. If you're logged into your OneDrive account, it should show up automatically.

    The OneNote Share Notebook screen with the OneDrive account highlighted

  4. If you don't see the OneDrive location where you want your OneNote notebook to reside, select Add a Place > OneDrive or select the location you want to move this notebook to.

    Share Notebook with Add a Place and One Drive highlighted

    If you choose OneDrive, you'll be prompted to sign in.

  5. Enter a name for the notebook or keep the one it already has.

    OneNote Share Notebook with Notebook Name section highlighted

  6. Select Move Notebook. OneNote saves the notebook to your OneDrive online.

    Move Notebook button highlighted in One Drive Share Notebook screen

  7. Now you can share your notebook with others so you can collaborate in real-time in your notebook. Simply type their email address, include a note, and select Share.

    Email address field and Share button in OneNote Share Notebook screen

    If you have a lot of OneNote notebooks you want to move online, you'll have to do so one at a time. While there are ways to sync them all at once, this is an advanced procedure, and simply moving them with a file manager can create syncing problems. The easiest way to handle this is to always save new notebooks to the cloud.

Why Sync OneNote With OneDrive?

Once your notebooks are online, you can install the OneNote app on your phone or tablet to access them from just about any device you might have, be it Windows, Android, or iOS.

When you log into your OneNote account with your phone, all the notes you took on your computer will be right there. There's also an online version of OneNote, so you don't need to have any software installed on your device to access your notes.

And when you take notes on your phone. Those notes will be waiting for you when you open OneNote on your computer.

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